OneNote of Caution

I have been working with OneNote, writing a scheme of work for our new OCR National in ICT, Unit 4 should be curious. Planning and constructing a scheme of work in OneNote has been a learning experience, OneNote has also offered some ‘oh, thats neat’ solutions to preparing and scripting a scheme of work, but at other times I have been a little frustrated that it was not WORD with extras. One real educational plus, OneNote has helped me reach students with low reading abilities as I have been able to record audio instructions maybe I will leave a video next time?

Here are a few things you and your students can take advantage of…

First you can write an entire notebook in one ‘location.’ This is highly likely to keep the students more organised and therefore more focused. Even then, the sections of the unit can be sub-divided further.

Like WORD, you can then hyperlink between pages, but however not to locations within a page.

Getting use to the text not defaulting to the top left can take time, but this gives you move versatility on the page.

Tagging is a great addition, I have left plenty of ToDo’s through the Worksheets, ideas and questions but will the students use them?

No centre or align text features but is there a need too when you can type anywhere? This applied to tables as well.

I have yet to use the pens function and I am note sure that I will but it not that different from freehand tools in WORD.

Limited image formatting, no wrapping for example.

Screen clipping evidence I believe will be a widely used tool with 3 months. Simple, quick and the time stamp is very useful.

Embedding sounds and video is a real asset, especially for this unit but what impact will this have on file sizes across college?

Questions to be Answered

Can the students set tasks and will this link to the Outlook accounts within College?

Will the students use the paper template, they certainly make the printouts look impressive.

When laptops become part of the furniture will my students record a lesson for later play back?

Will the students use OneNote over WORD in other areas of the their education?

Will the additional £13 be a barrier to students using the software at home?